India is planning to buy drones from Israel that can be armed, allowing the military to carry out strikes overseas with less risk to personnel.

The military's plan to acquire Israeli Herons was first conceived 3 years ago, but in January they wrote to the government asking for speedy delivery, as China and Pakistan develop their own drone warfare capabilities.

For surveillance, India has already deployed Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) along the mountains of Jammu & Kashmir, as well as on the disputed border with China where the two armies have faced off against each other.

This month, the Indian government approved the air force's request to acquire ten Heron TP drones from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) that can be equipped with weapons to engage targets on the ground. The deal, which has been estimated at $400 million, would open the option of covert cross-border strikes.

Gurmeet Kanwal, a former head of the government-funded Centre for Land Warfare Studies in New Delhi, said the armed Herons that will enter Indian service by late 2016 will give the air force deep-strike capability.

Michael Kugelman, South Asia specialist at the Washington DC-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, said the entry of lethal drones in the region could intensify mutual suspicion at a time when ties between India and Pakistan are strained.

According to New America, a Washington DC-based think-tank, only the UK, US and Israel are known to have used armed drones in combat, although more than 70 countries have UAVs with surveillance capabilities.

A delegation from state-owned IAI has been in touch with the defence ministry to determine the possibility of local manufacture of the Heron TP as part of the "Make-in-India" programme.